#256 - Hospitality Meets Adam Hamadache - Data, Dogs & Direct Bookings
This week I sat down with Adam Hamadache, founder of Formula and host of the Hotel Growth Podcast, a man who has spent the last 15 years helping hotels figure out how to grow in an industry that never seems to sit still for more than five minutes.
What followed was part hospitality strategy masterclass, part therapy session for modern business owners, and part beautifully chaotic conversation about AI, audience-less keynote speeches, and why hiring experts only to tell them exactly what to do might be “the definition of madness.”
From working in a shoe shop during school work experience while dreaming of hotels, to shouting orders on the grill in a Sydney restaurant kitchen overlooking the Opera House, Adam’s journey is full of sharp pivots, curiosity, and a relentless obsession with solving problems properly.
Along the way we get into the terrifying speed of AI, why hospitality still massively underuses its own data, what business owners can learn from bad football defending, and the deeply humbling experience of delivering a keynote presentation to an audience of… one.
And honestly?
The audience of one story alone is worth the price of admission (Which is free by the way)
In this episode, Adam and I get into…
• Why careers often evolve through curiosity rather than rigid planning
• How a failed hotel promotion model accidentally launched an entire hospitality marketing career
• The ongoing battle between hotels and OTAs, and why direct bookings still matter so much
• What operators misunderstand about marketing partnerships
• Why Formula made the bold decision to hire only highly experienced people
• The power of friction, challenge and healthy disagreement in great businesses
• Why “slow down to speed up” might be the most important business lesson of all
• The terrifying speed of AI and how search behaviour is fundamentally changing
• Why hospitality still isn’t using data and technology anywhere near its full potential
• How fear of being left behind can push businesses into bad tech decisions
• Why independent hoteliers often feel isolated when facing huge commercial challenges
• The thinking behind Adam’s new hospitality advisory board concept
And so much more.
Some cracking quote-ables from Adam…
“You don’t buy a dog and bark yourself”
“Search has changed more in the last 18 months than in the previous 18 years”
“You’ve got to slow down to speed up”
“The bold, harder decisions are often much less expensive than the easy decisions you choose to tolerate”
“Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is madness… but so is hiring experts and then telling them exactly how to do their job”
Why this episode is worth your ears
This is one of those conversations that goes way beyond marketing.
Yes, there’s loads in here about AI, growth strategy, technology, customer behaviour and the future of hospitality… but underneath all of that is a really thoughtful conversation about leadership, humility, evolution and the importance of staying curious when the world feels like it’s changing at breakneck speed.
Adam’s honesty around business ownership, difficult decisions, and learning to pause before reacting makes this one feel incredibly grounded and real.
It’s also reassuringly human.
Because sometimes even successful keynote speakers end up presenting to one confused bloke in a conference room.
And somehow…
that might actually be the perfect metaphor for modern business.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud, the people management platform built specifically for shift based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes, all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud
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